Old farmer in Nghe An hilly area earns hundreds of millions of dong each year from red-fleshed dragon fruit
(Baonghean.vn) - Mr. Nguyen Van Huu in Van Long hamlet, Giai Xuan commune is the first person to boldly introduce red-fleshed dragon fruit to grow on a large area in Tan Ky land. After 2 years of planting, this variety has begun to affirm its economic efficiency on this hilly land.
In 2017, on an area of nearly 1 hectare of hilly land in Khe La Han area in Giai Xuan commune, Mr. Nguyen Van Huu renovated and invested in planting red-fleshed dragon fruit. This is a new crop, so during the care process, Mr. Huu always researched and learned through TV, books, newspapers, and visited models to grasp the techniques and apply them in practice.
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| The Association of War Veterans of Tan Ky district visited the dragon fruit growing model of Mr. Nguyen Van Huu's family. Photo: Cam Tu |
Through actual production, this dragon fruit variety is easy to grow, suitable for the climate and soil here, so it grows well and bears fruit early. In 2018, from this area, Mr. Nguyen Van Huu's family harvested more than 6 tons of fruit, bringing in an income of 150 million VND.
Currently in the harvest season, Mr. Huu said that this year he plans to sell over 10 tons of fruit, earning over 300 million VND.
After visiting some red-fleshed dragon fruit growing models in Thanh Hoa, I bought seeds to plant. The results were beyond my expectations: they produced many fruits, were of good quality, and were popular with customers. I found that this is a crop that adapts well to the harsh weather, wind, and high hills here.
In 1 year, red-fleshed dragon fruit is harvested continuously for 5 months and the average lifespan of the tree is from 20 to 25 years. From flowering to fruit ripening for harvest is 30 days, with many batches of fruit, so every day the family has dragon fruit to sell.
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| Mr. Nguyen Van Huu takes care of the dragon fruit garden. Photo: Cam Tu |
Dragon fruit has purple-red flesh, is sweet, delicious, has high nutritional content, is rich in vitamins and minerals... so it is popular in the market, and is bought by traders every day at a price of 30,000 VND/kg.
The weather has been extremely hot these past few days, but thanks to the installation of a drip irrigation system, the plants have still grown well, yielded fruit, and proven to be economically superior to other crops.
Mr. Huu added: “Growing red-fleshed dragon fruit only requires initial investment in seeds, then cuttings can be used to propagate. My family has been able to cut cuttings to expand the area and also sell them to many local households.”
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| Each year, dragon fruit bears fruit for 5 to 6 months, with an average of 3 fruits weighing 1 kg. Photo: Cam Tu |
This year, over 60 years old, Mr. Nguyen Van Huu still upholds the qualities of Uncle Ho's soldier, lives close to and loves everyone, comrades, teammates, works enthusiastically, is creative, dares to think, dares to do, so now his family owns a fairly scientific and effective economic farm.
With an area of 25 hectares, he has covered 20 hectares of raw acacia, the remaining area he arranged to grow fruit trees and dig ponds to raise fish. From the comprehensive farm economic model, each year brings the family an income of over 450 million VND.
The Tan Ky District Veterans Association has 50 member farms with high income, of which the typical farm is that of veteran Nguyen Van Huu. He currently has the largest red-fleshed dragon fruit garden in Tan Ky District, with very high economic efficiency. We are promoting propaganda for local officials and members to visit the model to replicate it, because the locality has great land potential, especially mountainous land like Mr. Huu.
